The Challenge: Speed up baseball

Then with the Marlins, pitcher Josh Johnson waits for the umpires to determine whether a home run is actually a homer, a decision ultimately made by an instant-replay system that's likely to be expanded soon. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
— AP

Then with the Marlins, pitcher Josh Johnson waits for the umpires to determine whether a home run is actually a homer, a decision ultimately made by an instant-replay system that's likely to be expanded soon. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
/ AP

Two hundred and twelve. That’s the number of games played in 2013 by the Boston Red Sox between the first pitch of Grapefruit League ball and Koji Uehara’s last pitch of the World Series.

That’s two more games than the St. Louis Cardinals, who played only a dozen more than the Padres, who didn’t come close to playing in the postseason.

Like baseball people are always saying, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. But, man, they keep making the marathon longer.

The average time of a regular season game in 2013 was up to two hours and 59 minutes, according to Major League Baseball, and postseason games lasted an average of three hours and 22 minutes. With no halftime. And if the pitch-takin’, foulball-hittin’, out-steppin’ BoSox were involved, the game went glacial.

So the new champs hadn’t even dipped their duckboats into the River Charles on Saturday before Major League Baseball released the announcement that could portend of even longer games hereafter. Over the next few days, new “review procedures” will be utilized in five Arizona Fall League game, including an expanded format for instant replay that is being considered for the majors for next season.

“The biggest thing (this offseason) is going to be this replay,” said Padres manager Bud Black. “This is really going to change things. If it does go into play next year, it’ll change a lot about how the games are played.

“I’m not saying positive or negative. Just different. This is a different ballgame and different for managers to know how to handle things.”

For all the baseballs being flung around the field, imagine a manager flinging an NFL-type hanky out of the dugout, though it’s unlikely that MLB would adopt football’s form of issuing a challenge. No need, baseball being baseball, wherein managers are free to step out onto the playing field between pitches to state their protest on calls not involving balls and strikes.

In the system to be voted on by MLB owners this month, managers would have an allotment of one challenge over the first six innings, plus a total of two challenges for the remainder of the game. Any such challenges of an on-field ruling will be thrown directly to MLB headquarters in New York, where officials will review instant replays and render a final judgement.

"We believe this will be very impactful and … useful for all sides," said John Schuerholz, president of the Atlanta Braves and a member of MLB’s replay committee. “Managers will have a new tool that they'll have to learn how to use."

Suggesting that the process will take less time than umpire huddles, Schuerholtz and other proponents of the system insist the system will speed up the game. Of course they do.

From here, the challenges sound like a possible six more opportunities for commercial breaks, not to mention another reason why young people are being distanced from baseball by the pace of games.

For his part, Black is both a traditionalist and a forward-minded, proactive thinker. He deeply appreciated the sense that this World Series was truly a rare match-up of the winningest teams from each league, the best against the best, as it should be. It made for a good and memorable Series, too, human error and all.

But October’s turned to November. Change, like the calendar, stays on the move.

“I hear rumblings,” said Black. “I hear rumblings about the plays at the plate, the collisions, and I think we’re getting closer to a change that would eliminate them. I’m hearing rumblings of the designated hitter coming to the National League. There’s just so much discussion going on.

“There are changes, historic changes, in the works this winter. And if they don’t come by next season, they’re coming soon.”